CHICAGO—The Chicago Teachers Union welcomes today’s announcement by the federal government of new guidelines holding schools accountable for fairness and equity in school discipline. For years the CTU has supported alternative methods to deal with discipline issues in our schools, and continue to do so through the Quest Center Safe Schools Consortium. Far too many black and Latino students are suspended, expelled and forced to drop out of school, creating a school to prison pipeline. In a district where black youth represent 42 percent of Chicago Public Schools students, this group accounted for 75 percent of school-based arrests in 2012,” according to a report by Project NIA, “Policing Chicago Public Schools.”

CTU’s own research shows CPS had the highest suspension rate of all big-city school districts in 2008, with 13% of students suspended. One out of every four Black male students was suspended. Black males comprised nearly the majority of suspensions despite being only a quarter of the CPS student population. (See "The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve")

Unfortunately, districts often call for reducing punitive discipline without investing in social workers, school psychologists, counselors and other expert-run programs that help students deal with tensions in a productive and healthy manner. CPS is no exception. Unless school districts invest in the appropriate staff and programming this announcement will not adequately address the problem in Chicago or elsewhere.